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The ‘Wan-da’ Got Away [1]

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Date: 2023-11-17

I like writing about my Cal Poly days. Those were some of the best days of my life! And, I miss them so.

So, my roommate, who was from the San Francisco Bay Area, during summer, after summer session was over and before the one in the fall began, he decided he wanted to go camping. His place of choice was the Fallen Leaf Lake area near Lake Tahoe. He invited me to take part.

His car was in great shape because it had just received a complete overhaul that included among other things, a totally rebuilt engine, new tires and a brake job. My roommate did much of the work himself.

In preparation for the outing he got a hold of two sleeping bags, some dehydrated-food packets along with other kinds of non-perishable food items, a first-aid kit, fishing gear and the required fishing licenses (that’s plural), bait (salmon eggs), flashlights, matches to start a campfire and the correct amount and appropriate type of clothing. We were going to stay two full days and nights, plus the time it took to drive over and back. This was my very first outdoor camping trip.

It should be noted that things got off to a most promising start … and then quickly went downhill from there.

So, my roommate parked his car in a parking lot where it was permissible to leave one’s vehicle parked overnight and then, after grabbing all that we needed to take with us, we just hiked it in. I didn’t want to use the phrase “packed it in,” because that might have created the impression that we had just given up. Which, wasn’t the case at all. We stuck it out.

After setting up camp I’m thinking at the 6,000 foot elevation level, the two of us had one of those delectable, “requires-rehydrating” by just adding water, dehydrated meals.

So far, so good.

We had a campfire going at dusk as well as well into dark. My roommate and I agreed that we did not need to keep the fire going because with the clothes we brought plus the aid of the goose-down sleeping bags, that would be sufficient to allow us to keep warm. Thus we let the fire burn itself out.

Needless to say, sometime after we both fell asleep, my roommate abruptly wakes me up, he on one side of the campfire spot and me on the other. He said there was some kind of critter sniffing around and scratching (with its paws or claws, I would assume) his head.

While trying to shoe whatever it was away, he, in a frantic state, implored me to find the flashlight and shine the light on the animal.

Of course, me being half awake, and only having only an inkling of what was going on, I did my best I could to locate the flashlight. But, I never did find it and the critter had scurried off.

Though we both eventually managed, after all of that excitement, some of it most probably “hair-raising,” to fall back to sleep, I have to believe it was neither deep nor restful. Regardless, we made it through our first night.

As eventful as day one was, day two was even more so.

Though the day started off okay with some rehydrated scrambled eggs (not my favorite), things quickly went south.

Planned for the day was fishing. I mean, what could go wrong with that, right? Everything.

So, there were three lakes all at different elevations. There was Fallen Leaf. There was Aloha. And, there was one other, the name of which escapes me.

So, my roommate decides we should try our hands at fishing the middle lake. The day was sunny and there were plenty of fish but they weren’t biting. I guess they didn’t have appetites for salmon caviar.

Meanwhile, my roommate decides he wants to snack on some crackers, so he opens up a box of them, and while nibbling away, this lone chipmunk enters scene to investigate. So what does my roommate do? He proceeds to feed the chipmunk.

Big mistake. Because no sooner did that happen than what seemed like hundreds of them just seemed to pop up out of nowhere. While my roommate did not make the same mistake twice, we both agreed that it was probably a chipmunk that was scratching at his head the night before.

Okay, so while the fish weren’t biting and the chipmunks were, I had to change the baiting strategy. No, I didn’t feed the chipmunks salmon eggs. I snatched a fly from the air, hooked it on the fishing hook, and cast my line into the lake. It was only several seconds more that I snagged a fish.

Myself, having never done any fishing before, I was eating it all up. It was at this time that my roommate in trying claim the catch of the day. In doing so, he told me to let out some line, and, I done that, that fish would have been our dinner that night. But, I didn’t do as he had instructed. And, while he was trying to unhook the fish, it wriggled and that was the end of that. So, no fish fry for dinner, in other words.

After failing to get that fish, we gathered our things and the two of us hiked up to the lake number 3.

After assessing that that lake didn’t have any fish, we retuned to the middle lake, but at that it had gotten late, we were both tired and just said forget it and basically called it a day.

The dinner meal basically a carbon copy of the previous evening’s, we chowed down, got the campfire going and retired to the sleeping bags. Only difference was, we kept the fire going all night, each of us taking shifts keeping an eye out for critters. I guess by some rare twist of fate, none showed up.

By the morning of day number 3, this time we really did pack it in and proceeded to hike back down to the parking lot where my roommate’s car was parked.

It was time to go. I think the both of us had our fill of camping out, fishing and critters for a while.

After that trip I only camped out just one more time. On that outing, our site was visited by a bear. I think it’s easy to see that that camping adventure would be my last. I haven’t been on a camping since

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